An ocean away, underwater archaeologist Jennifer McKinnon watched in worry as her beloved island of Saipan, whose history she's treasured and studied and conveyed for the past decade, was slammed by Super Typhoon Yutu's fury Thursday.

The storm tore through the Northern Mariana Islands of Saipan and Tinian, about 1,600 miles east of the Philippines, with 180-mph winds.

McKinnon, a Florida State alumna, calls her longtime friends and colleagues in Saipan her "island family." She was relieved to know they were alive, despite windows blown out and news of long-term power outages.

"I spent 10 years out there," she said. "I've developed some amazing friendships and colleagues. They're people I communicate with on a regular basis... So I was pretty nervous and I knew it was going to be very tough."

McKinnon is a former Department of State and senior underwater archaeologist with Florida’s Bureau of Archaeological Research and now an associate professor at East Carolina University.

With a population of about 63,000, the Northern Mariana Islands are a chain of 14 islands. Saipan is home to a rich history of World War II artifacts.

Archaeological Jennifer McKinnon and her team investigating a U.S. amphibious landing craft in the waters of Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands.(Photo: Special to the Democrat)

McKinnon has been studying those U.S. and Japanese World War II underwater and on-land remains on Saipan and recently Tinian, including shipwrecks, wrecked planes, amphibious vehicles and U.S. prisoner-of-war cold cases.

Through published work and uncovering historical sites, McKinnon tells the story of the island — the soldiers who fought there, its indigenous people and how they hid in caves when the U.S. invaded and put them into internment camps.

She also collects elders' stories to "help tell the story of World War II from multiple perspectives."

Thanks to six grants from the American Battlefield Protection Program, McKinnon put together a heritage dive trail that delves into significant historical sites.

Recently, she teamed up with Task Force Dagger to offer rehabilitative therapy for special forces operators with injuries and PTSD, teaching them underwater archaeology techniques.

Using a community archaeology approach, her research is "with, for and by" locals.

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"On an island where they have been subjected to a lot of colonial interference," said McKinnon — starting with Spain, then Germany, then Japan and the U.S. — "they have a history of people coming in from the outside and telling them what to do, and how to change their lives and their indigenous life ways."

McKinnon didn't want to repeat that.

Instead, she made an effort to reach out to the local media to inform the community about why she was there and worked with them.

Uncovering their history and telling the story of the island, McKinnon has developed a bond with the community there by letting them be part of the process. "I really wanted them to become part of that and I think that built a trust with the local community."

Jennifer McKinnon is pictured underwater next to a Japanese Emily seaplane from World War II in Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands waters.(Photo: Special to the Democrat)

McKinnon received her master’s in 2002 and her Ph.D. in 2010 from Florida State.

She stumbled into Saipan's treasure trove of history while working as a senior lecturer at Flinders University in Australia.

She headed to Saipan with the intention of researching a different project, but the Historic Preservation Office pointed her to the wealth of WWII remains in the Commonwealth's waters.